downthetubes: Creating Comics

Monday, 20 May 2013

If you are considering writing comics professionally you
may be worried about your work being stolen by others. Equally, given the sources
that have inspired you, you may be worried about stealing from others. Here's
some items on the subject, which I hope you'll find useful. Some of the material
is based on a news group posting by Bernie Corbett, General Secretary of the
Writers'
Guild of Great Britain, which he very kindly gave me permission to reproduce
on here.

Copyright protects any artistic or literary work that is recorded in any way.
Whatever you write or draw is automatically copyright is yours - automatically,
legally, inalienably etc. - as the writer/author/artist of the item in question.
There is no such thing as paying for copyright in your own work.

Copyright is automatic whenever you write or record a piece of work (in the
UK -- it is different in the US and elsewhere). Music is copyright, and there
are other rights relating to musical works and performances. If you whistle
a tune in the street and somebody copies it, there isn't anything you can do.
But if you write it down in musical notation it is protected by copyright. If
you tape-record your whistling the music is also protected by copyright and
in addition there are rights attaching to your performance.

Protecting your rights is not straightforward. It is expensive to bring a case
to court and difficult to prove your case to the satisfaction of a judge or
jury. So it better to have a clear idea of what your rights are, and how best to avoid trouble. There are several good books available on the
subject and any serious professional writer should read one of them.

Registration of Copyright

Registration of copyright is very different, and is important only when you
need to prove it, for any reason.

If you are worried your work may be stolen, then you can
register your script with a body which specialises in such things. The United
States Library of Congress is one place.

Incidentally, if you're a screenwriter, the Screenwriters (UK and USA) Guild
offer a copyright protection service.

In the US, the easiest way to register copyright is just to use the US
Copyright office.
It cost about $20, but the good thing is you can copyright a collection of works
at the same time for the same fee.

The simplest method of protecting your copyright is to post
a copy of the work you have created to yourself (or your representative) by
registered or special class post. Make sure there is a good, obvious seal on
the envelope, or even consider sealing wax! The date of the postmark is proof
of the date of posting, providing you do not open the envelope. File it away
somewhere safe, or with your representative.

Posting yourself a copy of your work or depositing a script/copies
of character drawings/etc. with your bank or solicitor is not the same thing
as registering the copyright (which is yours, anyway, the moment you create
it) - but will at least prove the date of your endeavours...

Taking Material from Published Sources

You should be wary of taking material from published sources. The facts themselves
aren't copyright, but the form in which they are expressed, and any creative
order in which they are arranged, is copyright, and you can't reproduce it without permission. There's a useful article on what
constitutes fair use here
on BookZonePro.

Upsetting the Dead

It is impossible to libel a dead person. It is the living friends and relations
you have to think about. See the article "Whose
Life Is It Anyway?" on the UK Writers Guild website. The Guild often
advises individual members on these issues.

If you're thinking about creating your own web comic, I've found these three books useful reading.

How
to Make Web Comics
by Scott Kurtz and Peter Straub

For years young, creative men and women have dreamed about making a
living from their comic strips. But until recently their only avenue
of success was through a syndicate or publisher. Now more and more cartoonists
are doing it on their own and self-publishing their comic strips on the
web. With the right amount of work, knowledge, and luck, so, too, can
you. Scott Kurtz and Kristopher Straub offer their advice on how to create
compelling characters, develop a solid comic strip, build a website,
forge a community, and start earning money from your Webcomic without
having to sell your soul.

Webcomics:
Tools and Techniques for Digital Cartooning
by Steven Withrow and
John Barber

"Webcomics" is an introduction to one of today's fastest
growing and most exciting areas of publishing - online comics, created
digitally and distributed on the Internet. Combining profiles of well-known
webcomics creators with detailed workthroughs that reveal the nuts
and bolts of every aspect of comic creation and presentation, this
book is a "must-have" for anyone interested in where comics
are headed in the 21st century.

Comics
2.0: An Insider's Guide to Writing, Drawing and Promoting Your Own Webcomics
by
Steve Horton

Teaches readers how to develop a concept for a webcomic,
draw it, and publish it on the Internet. The book also shows them how
to promote their finished webcomic and earn money from it. Webcomics
2.0 explores the two methods of webcomic creation: traditional paper-and-pencil
art that is scanned and manipulated on a computer, and digital art that
is created entirely on the computer.

It covers three popular types of
webcomics-adventure, humor and manga, and reveals the tools, software
and resources that will help both authors and writers get started in
webcomics creation.

Friday, 17 May 2013

Richard Starkings,
who persuaded Marvel UK to hire me in the first place way back when, offers some
useful advice about breaking into comics in this interview, Like
a Chained Elephant, plus comments on the advent of Computer Lettering and
more.

Richard is a comics publisher, font designer and comic book
letterer, editor and writer. He was one of the early pioneers of
computer based comic book lettering and as a result is one of the most widely-known creators in that industry.

"To write is to take chances.
Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you don't, because the measure of
success is in the eyes of the reader. And a subjective opinion is always
right for that reader, always true for that person."J. Michael Straczynski (7/10/04), writer, The Amazing Spider-Man, Babylon 5 etc. etc. etc.

Jeph Loeb was interviewd by the supermanhomepage
in 2004, and offered this advice to writers when asked if he had any
advice for breaking into the comic business, or into writing in general?
" Keep writing," he advises. "Every day. Write a page. Of something.
Anything. Write what you love, what you know. Stay on it. If it's
comics, get to know the editors. They are the ones who can hire you. Not
other writers. Don't be a snob. Work for anyone. Get to know artists.
Work for free and work up from there. And never, ever let anyone stop
you from your dream."

How long it takes him to script a comic, he revealed, "depends on the
issue, depends on the book. Sometimes they come very quickly -- a few
days. sometimes it takes a few weeks of thinking, taking notes, coming
up with moments and then finally sitting down and doing it. William
Goldman who is one of my heroes and who wrote (among many, many things) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was
asked how long does it take to write a screenplay. He said that he
thought about Butch & The Kid for 13 years and wrote it in seven
days. So. how long did it take him? A LOT of writing is done when you're
not writing.

"
That's hard to understand when you 're the writer's wife or girlfriend
or boyfriend. It's hard to explain when you're on the couch for six
hours, counting ceiling tiles that you're actually working. But, my mind
never stops."

Loeb
says he always tries to work with an artist on a book. " I always talk
about the story with my artist at the beginning," he revelaed, "so he
knows what he's getting into. I try and keep mind his concerns,
strengths and the things he loves to draw.

"I write a full script -- very detailed description, all the dialogue,
just like a screenplay. But -- and it's a BIG but --I tell the artist
that it's there for him to interpret. I only ask that if they can, try
to follow the pacing -- the rhythm -- of the dialogue, that'd be great.

"Even so, when the artwork comes in, I re-dialogue the work to better
suit the images. Sometimes that's a complete rewrite, sometimes, that's
just putting the balloons on the page.

One thing that was drummed into my head (by
more
than one writer or editor) is that when you're writing comics, let the pictures
tell
the story.
You should
never overwrite and be ruthless about dialogue -- cut it, cut it and cut it to
tell the story through the images as well as the words, but most particularly,
the pictures!Alan Moore recalled the standards of DC Comics
editor Mort Weisinger in an interview
for the fanzine Zarjaz #3:

"What he said was: if you've got six panels on a page, then the maximum
number of words you should have in each panel is 35. No more. That's the maximum.
35 words per panel.

"Also, if a balloon has more than 20 or 25 words in it, it's
going to look too big. 25 words is the absolute maximum for ballon size.

"Right,
once you've taken on those two simple rules, laying out comics pages -- it gives
you somewhere to start -- you sort of know 'OK, so six panels, 35 words to a
panel, that means about 210 words per page maximum... [so] if you've got two
panels you'd have 105 each. If you've got nine panels, it's about 23 - 24 words
-- that'll be about the right balance of words and pictures.

"So that is why I
obsessively count all the words [in my scripts], to make sure that I'm not going
to overwhelm the pictures. I've seen some terrible comic writing where the balloons
are huge, cover the entire background..."

Known elsewhere as Doroteo Gerardo N. Alanguilan Jr., Gerry is a Filipino
comic book writer, artist and publisher. He's an Architect by profession,
and a member of the San Pablo Chapter of the United Architects of the
Philippines, but prefers to be a storyteller through the creation
of comic books.

He has written and/or drawn comics like Wasted, Timawa,
Lastik-Man, Crest Hut Butt Shop, Johnny Balbona, Humanis Rex!, Where
Bold Stars Go To Die and ELMER. The latter two he published from through his own Komikero Publishing. ELMER was eventually picked up by SLG
Publishing for publication Internationally in 2010. Editions Ca Et La at
the same time released a French Translation in Europe.

He has also been an inker of comics for DC, Marvel and
Image, and has worked with Leinil Francis Yu and Whilce Portacio on
titles like Wolverine, X-Men, X-Force, Superman, Ultimate Avengers
Vs New Ultimates: Death of Spider-Man and many more.

He also adapted and illustrated various short
stories by classic authors for Graphic Classics including “The Black
Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Judge’s House” by Bram Stoker, “The Plague
of Ghosts” by Rafael Sabatini among others.

He's also very interested in promoting and preserving the
artwork created by the many great Filipino comics illustrators of the country's
past. You can find galleries of artworks by the likes of Nestor Redondo,
Alex Niño, Francisco V. Coching, Rudy Florese, Alfredo Alcala and many
others at his Philippine Comics Art Museum Online.

• For more info about Gerry, visit his Main Site. You can view a portfolio of his work here.

Self Publishing Resources

About this site

Creating Comics is a Personal Guide based on my experience as a comic editor for Marvel UK in the 1990s and my more recent experience as editor for the new STRIP Magazine.

This guide includes comments from other comic professionals who continue to pit their wits against that arch-nemesis, the comics editor...

This page owes a lot to the comics creators I have worked with in the past and met at various events, but particularly: Paul Neary, whose vision drove the Marvel UK 'universe' while I worked for him; Dave Gibbons; Alan Moore; Alan Grant; Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning; Nick Miller; Andrew Ness; Liam Sharp; and Bryan Talbot.